Lifestyle

I’ve never really been motivated to get healthy & fit for the right reasons – more often than not my only motivation was to look “good” in a bikini, and this was by any means necessary. “Healthy” wasn’t really part of my vocabulary. However, for the past 7 months now health & fitness has become a bigger part of my life – I’ve made adjustments to my entire lifestyle and I’m so glad I have. Along the way, I’ve started to (through experience) debunk myths I previously believed in and rituals I previously followed. And now – as you do – I’m going to share a few nuggets I’ve learned that have really made an impact…

“Weight lifting will make you look like a man”

Traditionally when I’ve gone to the gym, I’ve done nothing other than cardio and a bit of ab work. I never even set foot in the weights section as I was convinced lifting weights would “bulk me up” and give me “manly” features; plus, my one and only concern was to “have a flat stomach”, why would I have needed weights for that? It was actually at a Virgin Active blogger’s event that I learned cardio wasn’t all I thought it was cut out to be, actually, they told us not to be “cardio bunnies”. When I began on my journey this time around, I started coming across a bunch of girls on Instagram that primarily do weight training, and I was astonished at how effective this way of working out seemed to be. Obviously – I started weight training and wondered where it had been all my life! Whilst I used to absolutely dread the gym and even feel sick thinking about it – back when I would spend the entire session on the treadmill – now I actually look forward to training when I know I’ll be lifting and utilising the equipment. And that leads seamlessly onto one of the most important things I’ve learned about health/fitness – do what suits you. The thing about working out is that it’s actually very easy to enjoy – it releases a hormone called endorphins which is literally a feel good drug – so it’s all about finding what works for you. People are different: some are academic, some are creative; some people couldn’t care less about fashion, some care so much they’d get custom made high quality T-shirt printing. What works for you? Is it yoga? Pilates? Weight training? Running? Find your very own personal “zen”.

“Avoid carbs at all costs”

I remember being in my university’s library once and reading an article about Kim Kardashian supposedly losing all of her baby weight by following the Atkins diet. A quick google search and I found that the philosophy behind the Atkins diet was to restrict carbs and load up on fats instead. So – I did just that. I’d seriously restrict my carbs and absolutely pile on the fats – I’d eat a whole rack of ribs for dinner and feel no kind of way because I didn’t have any carbs with it! I convinced myself that any sort of carbs whatsoever were terrible for me and tried to restrict my carb intake to no more than 50g a day. I realised I was going wrong where, at some point in my current health and fitness journey, I decided to download My Fitness Pal. I’m not one to count calories but I just wanted to get a better idea over what I generally put in my body. I realised I was going way overboard with the fats and was delighted to find that the recommended carb intake was healthily way more than I was used to (and who doesn’t love some good carbs?) I definitely have felt a lot healthier and less sluggish managing my diet in this way – at the end of the day it’s all about balance. To me, a dinner of rice, meat and veg > a dinner which only consists of a rack of pork BBQ ribs and nothing else. Ladies, carbs are not going to kill you.

In my darkest times, I’ve coming very close to buying these so called skinny coffees, or flat tummy teas, or whatever else there is under the sun. I even once had product in my basket ready to purcahse but I decided against it when I went to google the longer term effects of the ingredients and the results weren’t very flattering. There was actually a time I was contacted by one of these companies and they were going to send me a near endless supply of these products if I just advertised them on Instagram now and again. At first I wasn’t interested in working with the company due to previous experiences, but I was feeling so down about myself and my body one day that I actually agreed to go along with it. Luckily, before any information was exchanged (and any products sent), I again decided against it but this time it was because of my readers/followers. Sure, at that moment I didn’t care about the fact that it was a quick fix (in no way long term) and that the ingredients were fairly dodgy, but I didn’t feel comfortable promoting this to my followers when I knew deep down that I wasn’t totally comfortable with the product. Patience and consistency are more important when it comes to living an all round healthy lifestyle (and I am still really practicing the patience thing) – eat right and train hard and that will give you your desired goal in time.

Tough turning away from free supply of a diet product..but going to do right by my body (& followers) by doing things the natural way 🏃🏾‍♀️

The current health and fitness journey I’m on is just that – a journey. It’s a lifestyle now to eat (fairly) well and to train hard and it’s not because I want to obtain a summer body for the beach in July (and then forget about it afterwards). In the past, it was never a “journey”, it was a – “oh sh*t, I’m going on holiday in 2 months, I need to lose weight” kind of thing. Usually when I got to this point I would do something I’d never recommend – I just wouldn’t eat that much. When I went home this Christmas my parents told me that in my final year of university they worried over weather the exams were getting too much because I’d lost a considerable amount of weight – but the truth was that I just wasn’t eating that much in that period. I’d eat a sausage and egg bun for breakfast (and cut the sausage into a quarter), I’d have a yoghurt for lunch (yes, ONE yoghurt), and have a very, very tiny pot of rice and chicken for dinner. My average daily calorie intake wasn’t even touching 1,000. If I was hungry I’d feel some sort of twisted satisfaction because I thought it meant I was losing weight. This time round, although my mind did wonder back to that quick fix, I realised that I really couldn’t even do my job right if I didn’t have the correct fuel, and also, I was so done with “quick fixes” and yo-yo dieting – so I did what I should’ve always done – I tweaked my diet (less burgers, more veggies) and kept up the calories. These days, I am so satisfied after every meal and if I feel hungry I’ll grab a snack. Restricting your diet is ultimately bad because you are damaging your metabolism – it’s not sustainable, it’s not healthy and you shouldn’t do it! Food is one of the best things in the world – why would you want to miss out on that?!

I used to passionately hate the gym, and I thought that healthy eating = constant hunger, however in these past 7 months I’ve started to learn a lot. For the first time in a long time, I’m feeling better and healthier than I ever have before.